2012 GAME DEVELOPERS CHOICE ONLINE AWARDS TO HONOR
‘ONLINE GAME LEGEND’ RAPH KOSTER AND INAUGURATE
BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT’S WORLD OF WARCRAFT® INTO HALL OF
FAME

SAN FRANCISCO — August 30, 2012 — Organizers of the
Game Developers Conference® Online (GDC Online) have revealed
that Raph Koster, a key industry veteran behind the prodigious
massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs)
Ultima Online and
Star Wars Galaxies, will be honored with the Online Game
Legend Award at the third annual Game Developers Choice Online
Awards. Blizzard Entertainment’s influential
World of Warcraft
® MMORPG will be inducted into the Choice
Online Awards Hall of Fame during the ceremony, taking place
Wednesday, October 10 at GDC Online in Austin, Texas. The special
awards categories recognize developers and titles that have had
significant impact in the world of online games.

Raph Koster has led a prolific career. As the lead designer on
Ultima Online and the creative director on
Star Wars Galaxies, his contributions helped lay the
foundation for the many massively multiplayer games that followed.
Koster’s professional credits span nearly every facet of game
development, including writing, art, soundtrack music, programming
and design.

Raph Koster is considered a thought leader, as a frequent
lecturer and published author on topics of game design, community
management, storytelling and ethics in game development. His
A Theory of Fun, published in 2004, is considered seminal
by educators and members of the art game movement, as well as being
one of the most popular books ever written about games.

In his youth, Koster taught himself programming on an Atari
8-bit computer that he used to create the first game he ever sold,
to a fellow classmate. His early professional years include work on
the award-winning multi-user dungeon
LegendMUD, which he later parlayed into a position as lead
designer on the seminal MMORPG
Ultima Online. Koster’s varied interests in writing,
art and graphic design served him well when he joined Sony Online
Entertainment in the role of creative director on
Star Wars Galaxies, a game praised for its lush graphics,
authentic movie-based soundtrack, expansive in-game world,
customization options and sophisticated gameplay mechanics.

After serving as chief creative officer at Sony Online
Entertainment, Koster established his own firm, Metaplace, a
software platform developer for social worlds and the company
behind popular Facebook games
Island Life and
My Vineyard. In 2010, Metaplace was acquired by Disney
Interactive Media Group’s online social development arm,
Playdom, where Koster currently serves as vice president of
creative design.

This year’s Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame inductee,
Blizzard Entertainment’s
World of Warcraft, was released in November 2004, 10 years
after the launch of the company’s venerable
Warcraft franchise (1994’s
Warcraft
®: Orcs & Humans
™). Now regarded as a legacy in its own
right, the game has dominated the MMORPG landscape, setting the
standard for countless other games in the genre.

With its focus on delivering a polished player experience,
World of Warcraft propelled MMORPGs into the mainstream.
The game offered the community a reprieve from long load times and
steep learning curves, which only made the colorful graphics,
engaging gameplay, exciting quests and raids and immersive world
more impressive.

As the title nears its eighth anniversary,
World of Warcraft remains one of the top-rated PC games of
all time and continues to thrive globally with a massive and
passionate subscriber base. With three released expansion
packs since launch and a fourth,
Mists of Pandaria
™, around the corner,
World of Warcraft is one of the most profitable and
popular entertainment franchises in history, a pop culture fixture
that is sure to transcend generations. Members of the Blizzard
Entertainment
World of Warcraft team will be on stage to accept the Hall
of Fame award.

More information about the 2012 Game Developers Choice Online
Awards is available at the official website for the GDC Online
awards,
www.GDCOnlineAwards.com. GDC Online takes place
at the Austin Convention Center, October 9-11, 2012. More
information about sessions and registration is available at
www.GDCOnline.com.

About the UBM TechWeb Game Network

A core provider of essential information to the professional
game industry, the UBM TechWeb Game Network offers market-defining
content, and drives community through its award winning lineup of
print, online, event and research products and services. These
include the Game Developers Conference®, the Webby
Award-winning
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Online, the Game Developers Conference™ Europe, the Game
Developers Conference™ China, Game Developer Magazine, the
Game Career Seminars and
GameCareerGuide.com, the Independent Games
Festival and Summit, and the Game Developers Choice Awards. Visit
www.jointhegamenetwork.com

About UBM TechWeb

UBM TechWeb, the global leader in technology media and
professional information, enables people and organizations to
harness the transformative power of technology. Through its three
core businesses – media solutions, marketing services and
paid content – UBM TechWeb produces the most respected and
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More than 14.5 million business and technology professionals (CIOs
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About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including
World of Warcraft® and the
Warcraft®,
StarCraft®, and
Diablo® franchises, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (
www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision
Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of
entertainment software renowned for creating some of the
industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard
Entertainment’s track record includes fourteen #1-selling
games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s
online-gaming service, Battle.net
®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions
of active players.

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